The Daily Grind: 5/14/14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

  1. Skip Patterns
  2. Today’s DFS
  3. Tomorrow’s Everything
  4. Table

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1.Skip

There was a lot to write about in the player sections today. With early games on the schedule, I’m going to skip this section so you can get the content sooner.

2. DFS Stackables

Early: We have a full seven games in the early bin.

Kevin Gausman is back in the majors, but he wasn’t exactly impressive in the minors. He walked 4.85 batters per nine across six starts, and his longest outing was just five innings. He’s also recently recovered from pneumonia. While Baltimore is a good place for offense, the Tigers have just two left-handed bats in the lineup – Victor Martinez and Don Kelly.

Royals lefties will look to take advantage of Jhoulys Chacin. Between the majors and minors, he’s made six start this season. His walk rate is over four batters per nine. Meanwhile, the Rockies will use their righty stack against Jason Vargas. Kaufman Stadium is not friendly to home runs and the weather conditions are poor too.

Both Andre Rienzo and Tommy Milone are flammable. Unfortunately, the park isn’t ideal for run production. The weather however is favorable, so this game might be worth a stab.

Here’s another potentially high scoring affair in a lousy stadium. The Rays’ Jake Odorizzi squares off against the Mariners Brandon Maurer. Both pitchers have been hittable.

On the one hand, I like Brandon McCarthy because he’s fairly reliable, cheap, and seems to have improved quite a bit. On the other hand, Chase Field is one of the best stadium plays in this time slot. Decisions, decisions. On the other side of the matchup is Doug Fister, who I suspect will do just fine against Arizona’s tepid offense.

Late: 15 minus seven equals eight late games.

Rafael Montero has a tolerable matchup against a banged up Yankees team at Citi Field. My bigger concern relates to his ability – is he a major league starter, a swing man, or a good reliever? He’s averaged about five innings a start in the minors, which hurts his value, and he’s opposed by Masahiro Tanaka. In other words, don’t expect a win.

The Indians lefty stack will face Dustin McGowan. Michael Bourn is back in the lineup contrary to my previous reports.

With Carlos Gomez and Ryan Braun both in the lineup for the Brewers, Francisco Liriano has a couple big bats to avoid.

The Twins right-handers will see Felix Doubront at home. Target Field is much friendlier to righties.

Neither Nick Tepesch or Scott Feldman inspire fear in their opponents, although Feldman has been very good in the early going. His 1.93 ERA contrasts with a 4.26 FIP and 4.46 xFIP.

The Marlins will use right-hander Anthony Desclafani who was acquired in the Reyes-Buehrle-Johnson mega trade. He appears to be a command and control guy. Scant reports indicate a low 90’s fastball and the presence of some kind of change-up, curve ball, and slider. Said reports also predict a middle relief role for DeSclafani.

3. Scouting Tomorrow

Pitchers to Start: Tyson Ross versus Alfredo Simon is an interesting matchup. Both pitchers can throw bowling balls, but they also have to contend with a very hitter friendly park. As long as Ross is careful with Joey Votto, I think they’ll both do fine.

I don’t believe it. I’m recommending Phil Hughes against the Red Sox. Target Field is the perfect home park for the fly ball righty.

Let it never be said the Orioles are stupid. They bumped Wei-Yin Chen back from a start against the lefty-hammering Tigers so he can face an exploitable Royals roster. Brilliant.

As previously mentioned, the Yankees are banged up, so you can try Dillon Gee against them.
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Chase Whitley will start for the Yankees. Whitley is described as possessing a low 90’s sinker, an adequate slider, and a middling changeup. Reports suggest a future in the bullpen is imminent, despite good strikeout and walk rates in the minor league rotation.

Pitchers to Exploit: I like the Brewers at home against Wandy Rodriguez, especially a certain leadoff man who likes to swing out of his shoes.

Continuing my disbelief, Twins hitters may enjoy facing Clay Buchholz.

The Blue Jays have certain lefties who will be taking big hacks at Danny Salazar’s fastball. Meanwhile, the Indians have a few righties and switch hitters to target.

The Angels can run a lot of potent righties against Erik Bedard.

Hitters (power): C.J. Cron is an easy target tomorrow.

The Sean RodriguezLogan Forsythe side of the Rays stack will be in tomorrow.

Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles are worth a shot if you need a spot start at a skills based position.

Juan Francisco and Adam Lind are you classic power plays.

Hitters (speed): Perhaps Anthony Gose will start against Salazar. He bats ninth when he does play.

4. Table

The table below indicates which stadiums have the best conditions for hitters today. The color coding is a classic stoplight where green equals go for hitters. The weather conditions are from SI Weather’s home run app. A 10/10 means great atmospheric conditions for home runs. A 1/10 means lousy atmospheric conditions.

Cincinnati looks like a postponement in the works with a high percentage chance of storms all day. St. Louis is also at risk, although the rain is expected to clear out shortly after the scheduled start time.

The Link. The Orioles and Brewers have the friendliest parks for home runs. They’re split between the two time slots today, so you have one top stadium play for each contest. The matchups might take you in another direction.

This post, covering one of the leading sites for daily fantasy, is sponsored and made possible by the generous support of FanDuel. FanGraphs maintains complete editorial control of the postings, and brings you these posts in a continued desire to provide the best analytical information on the latest in baseball.





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Phil
9 years ago

Gose is not in the majors…